President tells Liam Fox:
Power sharing from grass roots
UK Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox who called on President
Mahinda Rajapaksa in London on December 1 discussed aspects of the wider
sharing of power in Sri Lanka, and development assistance from the UK.
In discussions on the Government’s proposals for sharing power among
all communities, President Rajapaksa explained that he saw the necessity
for the local government authorities to be more strengthened, to ensure
that the people in the different provinces would be able to have a
greater say in the management of their own affairs.
He told Fox there were shortcomings in the implementation of the
devolution sought by the 13th Amendment through the Provincial Councils,
which necessitated action to make the Provincial Councils contribute
more to the progress of the local government authorities.
He told the Secretary of State for Defence that he envisaged the
strengthening of local administration at the grass roots level through
village councils, in keeping with the necessity to have policies for
power sharing coming from the people at the grass roots level.
Responding to Liam Fox’s interests in the constitutional process for
power sharing, President Rajapaksa said that discussions were already
under way with Tamil political parties that agreed to work within a
united Sri Lanka, and that he would like to see the proposals for change
to come from the new political leaders of the Tamil people, instead of
imposing solutions from above, that would be counter productive.
The President and Fox discussed areas of assistance to Sri Lanka from
the UK, especially in areas of infrastructure development, particularly
in the North and the opportunities now available in Sri Lanka for
investment by the private sector in the UK .
There was agreement that the friendship between Sri Lanka and the UK
should be strengthened in the new situation of peace and moves for
reconciliation in the country. |